25 Sunday Nov 2012
Posted in Arab World, Foreign Policy, Media Monitoring, Other Arab issues, Press, USA, World
The photo of the Palestinian BBC journalist Jihad Masharawi holding his 11-month-old son’s body has gained big exposure at the start of the Israeli war on Gaza ten days ago. It featured on the front page of the Washington Post among other press and media outlets on 14th and 15th November 2012.
But some Jewish and American groups, of course, saw it differently when they protested by writing to the ombudsman and to Post editors that the photo was “biased”.
01 Thursday Nov 2012
Posted in Arab World, Foreign Policy, LB Culture, Lebanon, Other Arab issues, USA, World
Barack Obama can stand for the presidency of Israel if he wishes. He can also compete to be their loyal gatekeeper, but he can’t…steal our food for that purpose. Never.
Yes, our food! It’s even more outrageous he came near our beloved Hummus, ignoring our regional Hummous war.
11 Thursday Oct 2012
Posted in Caricature of the day, The rest of the world, World
When Benjamin Netanyahu called for an enforcement of a red line in regards to Iran’s nuclear project, he didn’t think the line could be as close to him as 25km, or indeed this close to Dimona nuclear site. The downing of the unidentified drone over Israel last Saturday marked that red line. It occurred less than two weeks after Iran’s announcement of the deployment of a domestic-built reconnaissance drone with a 24-hour flight capability.
06 Saturday Oct 2012
Posted in Arab World, Foreign Policy, Other Arab issues, Politics, Syria, USA, World
Tags
1973 October War, anwar al sadat, Anwar Sadat, Egypt, Golan Heights, Hafez Al-Assad, Henry Kissinger, Israel, Ramadan War, syria, Yom Kippur War
The Syrian regime and its media always make sure they supply us with the most bizarre scenes, and they are surely doing it today on 6th October.
Today is the 39th anniversary of the ‘Tishreen liberation war’ or the 1973 October war between Syria and Egypt on one side, and Israel on the other. Syrian state today is celebrating the victory of this liberation war.
18 Monday Jun 2012
Posted in LB Politics, MB Culture, Media Monitoring, MicroBlogs, Press, The rest of the world, World
Tags
Hate Culture, Humanity, Israel, Middle East, Photo, Press, Propaganda, Terrorism, West Bank, Yedioth Ahronoth
I am convinced the violence that historically plagued the Middle East is rooted in the culture of hate that is widely spread and established in the region. We see it in form of sectarianism, religious or ultra-nationalist forms, but we – rightly – beat ourselves for having this disease, while Israel claims to be a democracy and peace-loving country.
Israel continuously fear-mongers about the ‘savage Arabs’ that live around them who want to throw them in the sea, and use children in their militant activities – which is no doubt the worse type of all.
A main differentiation of existence of the hate culture in Israel is its promotion on the ‘state’ level, and not on the level of some rogue elements or parties in the society. Israel is as worse as, if not way ahead of, its neighbourhood in this respect. Israel is the place where militancy and war-readiness is seeded in their children minds.
15 Friday Jun 2012
Posted in MB Social, MicroBlogs, USA, World
16 Wednesday May 2012
Posted in MB Social, Media Monitoring, MicroBlogs, The rest of the world, TV, USA, World
Tags
BBC World Service, European Union, Foreign Policy, GlobeScan, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Program on International Policy Attitudes, Tv
Can you compile a list of the top four and bottom four countries which had respectively positive and negative influence over the world?
Of course, I have my own list in mind, but funnily enough I have a similar one here compiled from a recent 22-county poll conducted by GlobeScan (an international opinion research consultancy) and the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland – Program on International Policy Attitudes.
19 Thursday Apr 2012
Posted in Caricature of the day, MB Politics, MicroBlogs
Tags
Al-Hayat, Arab League, Benjamin Netanyahu, Democracy in the Middle East, Israel, Middle East, syria
It’s been a while that I have not posted selected caricatures from the press, so I decided to post two today!
The first is from the London-based daily Al-Hayat, commenting on Netanyahu’s statement of Israel being “the only democracy in the Middle East”.
29 Thursday Mar 2012
Posted in Foreign Policy, LB Politics, Politics
The last-month visit of the Speaker Nabih Berri to Cyprus to discuss the bilateral oil and gas issues showed how slow we are in responding to urgent national matters, how slack we are in forming our national foreign policies, and of course how careless we are in preserving and exploiting our national recourses.
05 Monday Mar 2012
Tags
Alon Liel, Bashar Al-Assad, Bruce Riedel, Foreign Policy, Golan Heights, Haaretz, Israel, Peace Talks, syria
When I read How Israel Could Remove Assad Diplomatically and Bring Peace to Syria, I thought it’s kind of science fiction. I thought Bruce Riedel, [another] veteran former CIA officer and senior fellow in the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution, to be going the extra non-reasonable and non-needed mile. He was basically proposing to offer the Golan Heights back to Bashar Al-Assad as the carrot, in return for Assad moving on, and allowing a democratic post-Assad Syria to start and flourish, away from the influence of Iran and Hezbollah.
22 Sunday Jan 2012
Posted in Media Monitoring, Social Media, USA, World
A Lebanese leader or senior political official will most likely need a Syrian blessing to get elected to office. But imagine if PM Najib Mikati for example producing a public video bragging on the praise he could fish from the Syrian officials, just to gain ‘public vote’.
Barack Obama did just that if not worse. He’s supposed to be the leader of the most powerful nation in history, and the free world, but Obama did act as a 3rd grade politician in a banana republic. His presidential campaign produced the ‘unbreakable bond’ video which must be one of the most embarrassing thing for America as nation.
12 Thursday Jan 2012
Posted in Arab Spring, Arab World, Politics, Syria
As if the Syrian uprising is not living enough surrealism at these times. To muddle the picture even more, Israel said that it’s getting ready to receive Syrian refugees, or to be more precisely – only Alawites. The remarks were made by Israel’s army chief of staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz to the Knesset committee on foreign affairs and defence:
On the day the Assad regime falls, it is expected to harm the Alawite clan. We are preparing to receive Alawite refugees on the Golan Heights
16 Wednesday Nov 2011
Posted in LB Politics, Lebanon, Politics, Syria
I think last Friday’s speech for the Secretary General of Hezbollah Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah was one of the most important ones. It had some important (and destructive) subliminal messages, but because Nasrallah has become so anticipated recently, the coverage to the speech was less sizeable or even exotic. Take what he said:
any likelihood of a new Israeli war on Lebanon is considered a means of [intimidation]. Unless there is no plan for waging war on the entire region, we rule out the possibility of a war on Lebanon [in the near future].
Ok, let’s examine these words meticulously. Continue reading »
02 Wednesday Nov 2011
Posted in Arab World, MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Other Arab issues, USA, World
Tags
Foreign Policy, Israel, Palestine, UNESCO, United States, YouTube
So in UNESCO now, Palestine is IN, United States is OUT. That’s the situation after the U.S. stopped the funding for the organisation, as a protest reaction to the vote on the admittance of Palestine as a new member. It’s not only unconvincing, but could be one of the most shameful decisions Uncle Sam has ever made.
You can check how countries voted on the decision here, but you MUST watch the below video when a brave journalist interrogated the State Department Spokeswoman; I really felt-ish for Victoria Nuland at some point. This decision shows how the American pro-Israel policies are based on a weak alibi.
Continue reading »
03 Monday Oct 2011
Posted in Arab World, MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Other Arab issues, Politics
In the wake of today’s attack on a mosque by suspected Jewish extremists in northern Israel, the above picture can probably give you a good explanation to the background of similar attacks, and to the spread of this mental corruption, the “Price Tag” policy.
The photo is for armed Jewish settlers in the West Bank hosting some foreigner comrades, who are part of the Jewish Defence League aiming to defend the settlements against ‘Palestinian violence’. They, in fact, ignore the fact that their presence where they are in the first place is considered an occupation and aggression by the Palestinians, United Nations and the international law.
Continue reading »
24 Saturday Sep 2011
Posted in MB Politics, MB Social, MicroBlogs, Politics, USA, World
Tags
“A Crime File”
Date of sentence: 23rd Sept 2011
Verdict: guilty
Culprits: 10 Muslim students (Irvine 11).
Jury: Orange County jury, California
Crime: Practising the American First Amendment of the Bill of Rights
Method of crime: protest in a form of heckling
Location of crime: University of California, UCI
Date of crime: 8th February 2010
Subject of protest: Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren
Aim of protest: highlight the Israeli occupation to Palestine & its crimes
Evidence: below video…
Academic performance of UCI: note towards the end of protest @5:20, how apparently an orthodox bearded ‘teacher’, happened to have a Jewish cap on, was telling them ‘you are failing your exams’.
Question1: what would the verdict be if the students were of a different religion?
Question2: what would the verdict be if the Ambassador was not an Israeli person?
Question3: has the ‘teacher’ been disciplined?
“propagating murder is not an expression of free speech”
18 Sunday Sep 2011
Tags
The below quotation is from an interview with the former US President Bill Clinton on ‘This Week’ show on ABC, by Christiane Amanpour aired today. Clinton was answering a question on the upcoming bid for a Palestinian State in the UN by the Palestinian Authority (PA), and whether the Congress will remove the funding for the PA. Amazing how ‘relaxed’ can a president be when they leave office, although he hasn’t actually left office as his wife still maintain the post of Secretary of State:
“No, I don’t think that — I hope that won’t happen unless the administration asks for that. I think that everybody knows the U.S. Congress is the most pro-Israel parliamentary body in the world. They don’t have to demonstrate that. And I believe that that’s clear.
So everyone knows that the United States is not going allow Israel’s security to be threatened. I believe, therefore, that the secretary of state and the national security team should determine what happens on the aid front, I don’t think Congress ought to take an option away from the administration in trying to work through this.
Continue reading »
15 Thursday Sep 2011
All analysts and people who oppose the American policy in the Arab world (most of them support the ‘resistance camp’ but not all of them), blame this policy for almost all the Middle East problems. These people see the hatred to America as a reaction, and not an action. In their opinion, America is not fair, and responsible for Israel’s brutality and aggressiveness against the Palestinians.
Whether you agree with that or not, it’s worth pointing to a prominent American voice raising these concerns now, which is pretty unusual for the Americans to hear; It’s the congressman and the Republican Presidential Candidate Ron Paul. He is affiliated with the Tea Party, but may not represent the mainstream party. He is the same guy who wants to cut all foreign aides (as per the Tea Party on spending rhetoric) and including aids to Israel.
Continue reading »
12 Monday Sep 2011
Posted in Arab Spring, Arab World, LB Politics, Lebanon, Media Monitoring, USA, World
Tags
Follow @TheZako
Israel’s war in July 2006 against Hezbollah and Lebanon has proven to be complete failure from strategic point of view to both Israel and the US. Although the war was initiated by Hezbollah through capturing two Israeli soldiers, but it became known later that the war was ready-made beforehand by Israel (like the 1982 full invasion to Lebanon which was provoked by an attack 2000 miles away on Israel’s ambassador to London!). Basically, Israel has not achieved its goal to destroy Hezbollah in the 2006 war (or even return its two captured soldiers!).
The 2006 war increased Hezbollah’s popularity within the Arab masses (although not necessarily within the in-house Lebanese), against their dictators public stances. The war allowed the Party of God to rearm and become stronger (as per various public speeches for its Secretary General Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah)
12 Friday Aug 2011
Posted in MB Politics, MicroBlogs, Politics, USA, World
What is the likelihood of 81 members of a House of Representative of a certain country, spending time in the same foreign country around the same period?
If the House is America’s, and the foreign country is Israel, then this is a likely event, especially if the trip is funded by a pro-Israel lobby.
25 Monday Jul 2011
Posted in Arab World, LB Politics, Lebanon, Other Arab issues, Politics, Wikileaks
Tags
Cyprus, Foreign Policy, Israel, lebanon, Oil & Gas, Turkey, United States, Wikileaks
The recently discovered oil and gas in the Eastern part of the Mediterranean will not only change the balance sheets of the involved countries, but also the balance of powers towards the side of the US – via Israel:
…And this is what an article in The Globe and Mail suggests:
But one day – count on it – Israel will match Canada in oil exports to the U.S. and thus free its long-time friend from needing to deal with tyrants.
We, in Lebanon, are still yet to confirm the legal internal framework for the whole process, and more likely to have a disputed area with Israel. The Turkish part of Cyprus has threatened today Greek Cyprus that it is entitled to block any sea deal with neighbouring countries (although this was Turkey’s position in 2008 according to Wikileaks).
07 Thursday Jul 2011
Posted in LB Social, Lebanon, The rest of the world, USA, World
When I came across this piece of information stating that Google Maps (or Google Earth) doesn’t cover Israel ‘properly’, I was a bit sceptic and I decided to check myself.
In the past, I came across many aerial satellite maps in many countries as part of my work in engineering, and I know it is quite common to remove/blur/cover any details that can be considered of ‘sensitive’ nature i.e. military or intelligence bases (especially if American in an Arab country!), and any other asset that can be considered of strategic importance (power plants, nuclear plants etc).
But what’s not common is to assume a whole country is a ‘sensitive’ location, and stops it from appearing in the standard resolution of the powerful global open-to-all tool Google Maps; this is exactly how Google Maps treats Israel – a country that can’t be photographed in detail.
17 Friday Jun 2011
Posted in Arab World, Other Arab issues, The rest of the world, World
Tags
arab spring, Egypt, Foreign Policy, GCC, Hezbollah, Iran, Israel, Jordan, lebanon, Palestine, Satire, Saudi Arabia, syria, United States
Socialism: You have two cows. The government takes one of them and gives it to your neighbor.
Communism: You have two cows. The government takes them both and provides you with milk.
Nazism: You have two cows. The government shoots you and takes the cows.
Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.
Do you remember the above? I remember it very well; it was a famous political sarcasm that was widely circulated in 1990s (at my time) about the different political systems. It’s has an older origin though. Believe it or not, these jokes affected my political ‘evolutionist’ thinking then.
Continue reading »
03 Friday Jun 2011
Posted in MB Social, MicroBlogs
In a recent post on this blog, I mentioned a ‘secret’ friend who seems coming back in this post again. He provided me with a valuable piece of information, that I am going to share with you. By the way, I am going to call any ‘secret’ friend: ‘The Stig’ of this blog!
Yes, The Stig has passed me the whereabouts of Ron Arad. Continue reading »
29 Sunday May 2011
Posted in Arab World, Other Arab issues, Politics, USA, World
We all know the clear US foreign policy in supporting Israel. This policy was reconfirmed with the two major recent speeches for President Barack Obama (on Arab Spring and before an AIPAC event); But I must say I 
was bemused when I saw the extensive exaggerated applause the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received this week, Continue reading »
